Now Cometh the Night
by Evilkitten3
Summary: Several students of Yuuei have disappeared, and the remaining heroes and heroes-in-training are unable to help. Meanwhile, the abducted students find themselves trapped in a strange place where nothing makes sense – and some less than savory characters are stuck there as well.
1. Gone

**AN: So… people seem to like my BNHA stuff! Yay! In that case, I shall make a multi-chaptered story for this fandom (brownie points to whoever can guess which author's style inspired this). Enjoy!**

 **Title** : Now Cometh the Night

 **Summary** : Several students of Yuuei have disappeared, and the remaining heroes and heroes-in-training are unable to help. Meanwhile, the abducted students find themselves trapped in a strange place where nothing makes sense – and some less than savory characters are stuck there as well.

 **Main Characters** : Bakugou Katsuki, Midoriya Izuku, Uraraka Ochako, Todoroki Shouto

 **Pairings** : Undecided

 **Warnings** : Attempted murder, adult fear, general weirdness, psychological issues, OCs

Chapter One – Gone

It happened quite suddenly out of nowhere, and with no actual explanation. One moment, Midoriya Inko was talking to her son as he helped her make dinner, and the next moment it was as if he'd never been there to begin with. The knife he'd been using to chop carrots fell onto the cutting board with a dull 'thunk', and the carrot that had been in the process of being chopped fell as well, only it rolled off the cutting board and onto the floor with a slightly loud, less metallic 'thunk'.

Inko stared at the space where her son had been for a good two minutes, and then she started to scream.

* * *

Midoriya Izuku opened his eyes and groaned. The groan was not particularly necessary, but his body hurt all over, so he felt that it was a very well deserved groan. He tried to sit up, felt a dull ache in his back, and promptly thought better of it. He closed his eyes, and then opened them again.

It would be inaccurate to say that he had been "blinded by the light", because there wasn't any light to be blinded by. Instead, there was an awful lot of very bright _dark_. The concept of "bright dark", or "darkness that happened to be shining very brightly", was not something that Izuku felt was particularly important in his life. In fact, he'd never even imagined such a thing. Darkness was dark, and that was the way it was supposed to be – only this particular darkness didn't seem very interested in conforming to Izuku's opinion of how bright it should (or, rather, _shouldn't_ ) be.

After a few minutes of lying on his back trying to figure out exactly where he was and how he'd gotten there, Izuku forced himself to his feet, ignoring his aching body, took a step forward, and almost immediately fell on his face. At first, he wasn't entirely sure what it was he had tripped over (the darkness might have been bright, but it certainly wasn't illuminating much of the area). And then it started swearing.

"YOU FUCKING SHIT-FUCK SHIT-FOR-FUCKING DICK BRAINS I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU GODDAMN PIECE OF–" yelled the thing that had cheerfully reintroduced Izuku's body to the floor (or whatever it was he'd been lying on).

"Hello, Kacchan," Izuku sighed, very relieved to at least know that something familiar was in the area, even if that something was very likely to murder him.

"Deku?" the swearing stopped as Bakugou Katsuki tried to figure out what was going on. When it occurred to him that whatever was going on had no intention of being figured out, the swearing resumed. "Shit. What the fuck? Where the fuck are we? What the fuck happened? DAMMIT DEKU ANSWER ME!" Izuku could actually hear the excess exclamation points, and he quickly realized that that wasn't right.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Did I fucking hear what?" Bakugou snarled, the quiet 'thud' telling Izuku that his childhood friend was having just as much trouble getting up as he had had himself.

"When you yelled just now," Izuku said. "There were exclamation points. I _heard_ the exclamation points, Kacchan." He didn't pay attention to Bakugou's response – Izuku had pointed it out, and that meant that Bakugou was going to deny having heard it, whether he actually had or not. "Is anyone else here?" he called. Something moved in the darkness, causing both boys to tense for a fight, and a sigh came from the shadows (which seemed less like the shadows that objects cast and more like the shadows that shadows cast for themselves because they damn well ought to have their own).

"It depends on what you mean by 'here'," a rather tired voice replied. "If you ask me, we aren't _really_ 'anywhere', per se – it's more like a 'nowhere', to be honest." The being that stepped out of the brightly-lit darkness looked like it was supposed to be an elderly human being, only someone had forgotten what the color palette for human beings was supposed to be (even in the world Izuku lived in, where people could be any color of the rainbow due to Quirks). That someone also seemed to have forgotten about 30 centimeters worth of person.

The being was nearly a foot shorter than Izuku, had skin the color of poorly aged Gouda cheese, watery orange eyes, and was so horrendously filthy that it was impossible to tell whether he actually had any visible hands or if he was simply wearing very ugly gloves. He wore a pair of overalls that were caked with dirt, and a cracked red hardhat with a headlight that clearly no longer worked. The fact that it was broken seemed to be irrelevant, however, as there was a very dark light coming from it that parted the bright darkness in much the same way a flashlight does, only with a little less logic to it. Tufts of gray-brown hair stuck out from beneath the hardhat, although it was difficult to tell if that was the natural color of his hair or if he was just in need of a seven-year shower (the latter, judging by the rest of him, was more than a small possibility).

"Who the fuck are you?" Bakugou demanded. Izuku tried to apologize, but the being didn't look remotely offended by the sheer amount of hostility that had been emanating from the blond since even before he spoke.

"My name is Tulip," the being told them. "Tulip LeVance. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Izuku really couldn't say the same – the creature smelled even worse than he looked. "Please feel free to call me Tulip."

"Okay," said Izuku.

"Fuck that," said Bakugou. "What the fuck are you supposed to be, anyway?"

"Why, I'm a Quark!" he said cheerfully.

"What the fuck is a quack?" Bakugou demanded.

"A 'quack' is the noise a duck makes," Tulip replied immediately, not looking a bit deterred. "Or, occasionally, a rude term for someone who does not know what he or she or they are doing. A _quark_ is any number of subatomic particles carrying a fractional electric charge, postulated as building blocks of the hadrons. A Quark – capitalized Q, my boy, I know you can do it – is a member of a species that can be described as vaguely humanoid, only no one but a human would bother, because other sentient species are capable of realizing that the world does not revolve around them." Tulip spoke very quickly, with a hint of amusement tinting his features.

"Do you all look like shit?" Bakugou asked bluntly. Izuku gave up on trying to apologize for Bakugou's behavior – it was a task that would make even Sisyphus weep and forfeit. Luckily, Tulip LeVance seemed completely unflappable.

"We do not," he declared. "However, I've been here – or, rather, I've _not_ been anywhere _else_ – for the better part of a century, and I've yet to find any supply of water large enough to cleanse myself with. Or any supply of water at all, really."

"No water?" Izuku yelped, voice cracking slightly. "We're going to _die_!"

"I'm not," Bakugou sneered. He was ignored.

"Ah, that's _right_." Tulip noted. "You humans do have an unhealthy reliance on aqueous liquid, don't you? I'd quite forgotten. We don't have many humans where I'm from, you see, and I don't think I've ever seen any 'round these parts."

"Where _are_ you from?" Izuku wondered, slightly calmed by the seemingly friendly creature's lack of concern.

"Probably the land of failed sewage systems," Bakugou grumbled.

"Your friend has quite the attitude," Tulip noted, cheerful as ever. "To answer your question, my boy, I am from–" the Quark said a few short syllables that could not be replicated by the human tongue (or, just as importantly, the human vocal cord). "It might be hard for you to pronounce." Bakugou, of course, tried anyway, and quickly found himself choking as his tongue nearly ended up in his throat.

"I see," said Izuku, who didn't really, as Bakugou tried to untangle the inner workings of his mouth (something that Izuku was certain he had never attempted before, in more than one way). "And… how do we go home?" Tulip laughed.

"'Go home'?" he repeated. "Do you think I'd still be here if I knew?" The answer was obviously 'no', so Izuku decided not to reply. "There's no way out of here, as far as I know. Best thing to do is cross your fingers and hope for the best!" Both boys opened their mouths, Izuku about to ask another question and Bakugou about to unleash a flurry of swears, when the ground beneath their feet decided it no longer wanted to be there, and all three of them feel down into the pitch-black light of the spontaneous hole.

* * *

Iida Tenya had been visiting his brother in the hospital and had run into Todoroki Shouto, who had been visiting his mother. The two had talked for a moment (well, they had said 'hello' and stood around awkwardly for a bit, which was basically the same thing) and then they had been somewhere else.

There had not really been a transition. They had been in the hospital and then they were in the middle of a grassy field. At least, it looked like a field – the blades of grass were bright pink, and did not seem to have understood that "blade of grass" referred to a "piece of grass" rather than a knife with a grassy texture. There were also very large mushrooms, with white stalks and dark orange heads. Some also seemed to have blue spots around the base.

"…What just happened?" Todoroki asked, looking slightly surprised (which, given the massive amount of scar tissue covering one fourth of his face, was probably about as surprised as he was capable of looking). Iida, not nearly as good at dealing with unexpected occurrences, made a few garbled squeaking sounds and promptly lost consciousness. Luckily, Todoroki managed to catch him before he hit the pink grass blades (which looked every bit as deadly as an actual field of knives). "Huh."

A few paces behind them, hidden by a cluster of peculiarly colored mushrooms, something moved. It was very slow and very quiet, and it occasionally made soft clicking noises, not unlike the clicks a very large insect might make with its pincers. Todoroki looked around, convinced he had heard something, but saw nothing. As absurdly large as the mushrooms were (you could probably make a house out of one, if you bothered to hollow it out), they were rather thin – the average human would find hiding behind one very difficult.

Todoroki scanned the area once more, just in case he'd missed something, and then walked over to another mushroom, grass knives crunching underneath his feet, and sat down once he was sure there was nothing hiding behind it. As he waited for Iida to wake up, he kept his eyes firmly fixed upon the mushroom that almost certainly _did_ have something behind it. It occurred to him that whatever it was might be just as uncertain about him as he was about it. After an hour or so (or possibly just twenty minutes, but it _felt_ like an hour, and that was what mattered), the thing hiding behind the mushroom poked its head out, and then the rest of it followed.

It had a triangular-shaped head, segmented limbs, large compound eyes, and was probably around eight feet tall. It appeared to be an enormous praying mantis.

Todoroki, unsure of how else to respond, made a sound that was somewhere between a gasp, a scream, and a sigh. The giant mantis-like creature jumped about a foot in the air and threw itself back behind the mushroom frantically. Several minutes later, it peered out once again.

"Click-click-click-click-click," it said. But what Todoroki heard was a very timid voice asking, [[ _Who are you?_ ]]

It occurred to him that he had not actually heard the creature speak. He had heard the clicking, and his mind had someone figured out what the clicking was supposed to mean, even though it really shouldn't have.

"Todoroki Shouto," he introduced himself, because the giant mantis creature had asked nicely and it would be rude to ignore it.

[[ _What are you?_ ]] The creature asked in another series of clicks.

"A human," Todoroki said, not knowing what else he was to say. "And… what about you?"

[[ _I am she called Manzanea,_ ]] said the mantis thing. [[ _I am a–_ ]] whatever word Manzanea intended to use to explain her species did not make it into Todoroki's head. It came out as a clicking sound, and it didn't show any interest in being heard as anything else. Not that it really mattered – Todoroki doubted he'd ever think of her as anything other than "very large insect". It was a good thing Kouda wasn't here, he thought. The quiet boy would probably have died of shock.

"All right, then," he said. The creature seemed pacified. For a moment, there was silence. Then, quite out of nowhere, Manzanea exploded with questions. Luckily, it was not a literal explosion, but it certainly was just as unprecedented.

[[ _Where are you from? Where are we now? What's a 'human'? Why do you only have two legs? What's that next to you? Is it a human too? Why do you have such a soft shell? Why aren't you clicking? How do you see? What–_ ]] Todoroki had to cut her off before she talked his ears off.

"Look, I don't know the answer to half those questions, and I didn't hear the other half," he said irritably. "Don't talk so much. You sound like a five-year-old."

[[ _I reached my fifth winter a month ago,_ ]] Manzanea told him, sounding rather indignant. Todoroki blinked.

"You mean you really are five?" he asked.

[[ _Five what?_ ]] The mantis returned.

"Five years."

[[ _Yes. And you appear to be…_ ]] Manzanea hesitated, looking him over. [[ _From your height, I would say that you have not completed more than a few moons, but you are rather well spoken for one that has not yet seen all four seasons._ ]]

"I'm fifteen years old," Todoroki told her. Manzanea stepped back.

[[ _Fifteen?_ ]] She repeated, the clicking growing even louder. [[ _Are you sure?_ ]]

"Yes." Todoroki said definitively.

[[ _Oh._ ]] She actually seemed to be a little in awe of this statement. [[ _You're very small, though._ ]] Todoroki shrugged.

"From my point of view, you're really big," he replied. Manzanea thought about this, decided she wasn't all that frightened of him, and came a bit closer.

When Iida awoke, it was to the sight of his quiet, dual-haired, heterochromatic friend having a nonchalant conversation with an enormous insect. His newly found consciousness was promptly lost once more.

 **AN: And that's chapter one! Lemme know what you think! I was initially gonna have more build-up to Manzanea, but then I decided against it. She's only five, after all. Actually… surprisingly enough, Bakugou and Midoriya ending up in the same place was really just a coincidence. When I had Midoriya trip over someone, I was fairly certain it would be a classmate, but it caught me off guard that it was Bakugou, of all people! Maybe that's for the best, though – the only other person who can really handle him is Kirishima. Maybe Uraraka could, though… speaking of Uraraka, she's the only one of the main characters who hasn't shown up, isn't she? She'll be here soon, though! And… well, to be honest, "main character" is just who I'm tagging on – there are** _ **lots**_ **of important characters. Kitty out!**


	2. Pinky and the Birdbrain

**AN: I loved writing the first chapter so much that I decided to start on the second one ASAP! Prepare for headcanons, OCs, and Kirishima being really,** _ **really**_ **gay.**

Chapter Two – Pinky and the Birdbrain

Quirks had first popped into existence in the year two thousand whatever, and everyone knew it. Only that wasn't exactly true. Quirks had been 'discovered', arguably, in the year 20XX, but they'd been around a bit longer than that. In fact, Quirks had been around for nearly as long as the human race (possibly longer, if Dr. Vinsvimer's Jellyfish Theory was in any way accurate, which was very questionable). The trouble was that human beings had, since the beginning of time, been cursed with a condition known as "chronic stupidity". Had it not been for this unending tide of idiocy over the centuries of human civilization, Quirks might've been discovered a tad sooner.

When exactly the first Quirk occurred is anyone's guess, but very few humans survived for long after turning bright orange and growing a third arm. Perhaps the public had something against it. Obviously, however, some had survived. Why and how they did so is also up for debate, although the most likely reason is that one parent decided 'maybe I _shouldn't_ drown my four-year-old son in the bath just because he now has a tail and the ability to see eighty-seven more colors than I can'. There was also the possibility that some executioner's daughter had woken up one morning with a self-whetting ax for a head, thus ensuring that her father never had to waste money on that particular tool of the trade ever again. Or, perhaps, a careless mother had dropped her child into a swimming pool and promptly discovered that her son had grown gills, and that she now had a legitimate reason to leave her husband and run off to god-knows-where. Of course, it's also possible that the daughter of an unfortunate person during the Salem Witch Trials had learned that she could teleport, and had immediately thought 'well, I'd best get right the hell out of here if I want to live to see my age hit the double digits'. Any number of things was possible, really.

And then there was Rodney Flapfoot, who looked like the kind of person who would only find success in the gladiator ring because all of his opponents would be paralyzed with laughter at the sight of a skinny young man with a ridiculous name holding a sword far too big for him, and shaking like a leaf. Fortunately for Rodney, he had, at the age of twenty-six-and-a-half learned that he couldn't die. More accurately, he could die, but he damn well couldn't stop _living_. He had tripped on a bar of soap in 1778 and broken his neck, only to wake up in the middle of the funeral process, terrifying all three of the people who'd bothered to show up (that's three including the priest performing the ceremony), and startling a pigeon, who, like the attending humans, was really only there for the food.

Immortality had been nice, for a while, but then Rodney had discovered that it was extremely boring, and made the far more entertaining decision of going stark raving mad (okay, it wasn't _exactly_ a decision, but he really didn't do much to try and keep his mental health intact). His career as a serial killer had lasted longer than some might have expected, if only because no one had really figured out how to stop him. Eventually, after the police realized that he wasn't going to die no matter how many times (or how uniquely) they tried to kill him, they'd simply thrown him in prison with several life sentences and had just decided to hope that he died of old age before his time behind bars was up sometime in the 5200s.

Rodney had not been particularly bothered by prison life – most of the other inmates were terrified of him. But then _other_ people started having powers and soon the prison was filled with powered people, and suddenly Rodney's immortality wasn't all that frightening. Still, he quickly adapted by ignoring all other life and keeping to himself unless it was absolutely necessary to do otherwise.

But now, for the first time in more than two hundred years, Rodney was no longer in his cell. He was in a small room with green walls and no visible doors or windows. A slimy green-brown substance dripped from the cracked, moldy ceiling, making a slight hissing sound when it touched the floor. Also in the room was a teenage boy with the head of a bird, and a girl about the same age with pink skin, pink hair, yellow eyes with black sclera, and horns. They looked like they had guts. Rodney grinned.

He liked that in a victim.

* * *

Uraraka Ochako and Asui Tsuyu often found themselves paired up together, sometimes without any obvious reason. The awkward situations the two had gotten into together had formed between them a very strong, if inexplicable, bond. They worked well together, they were very good friends, and they were also polar opposites.

Ochako kept her hair short, loved warm colors, tried to be sensitive to other people's feelings, felt the need to prove her strength, was an only child, and was very close to her parents. Tsuyu, on the other hand, had long hair, preferred cooler colors, saw no need to hide her opinions, knew exactly where she stood in terms of strength (and was more or less fine with it), had two siblings she had practically raised by herself, and was just a teensy bit resentful towards her parents because of that last fact. Ochako had always had many friends, while Tsuyu had only ever had one. Tsuyu's family was fairly well off, while Ochako's was not. If Ochako had one trait, Tsuyu likely had the opposite.

The one thing the two girls _did_ have in common (aside from being teenage heroines-in-training in the same homeroom at the same high school) was their feelings toward a certain Midoriya Izuku. It was not necessarily love, but neither one really had quite the word for it. For Ochako, it had started when Midoriya had saved her from the enormous robot during the entrance exam – a warm, fluttery feeling like butterflies in her stomach. She enjoyed spending time with her, and she certainly saw him as a very close friend, although she wasn't entirely sure if that was _all_ that she saw him as. For Tsuyu, it had begun a little bit after the time when she, Midoriya, and Mineta had faced off against a large group of villains. She still had nightmares about Shigaraki's hand – his awful, murderous hand, still stained with Aizawa-sensei's blood – reaching for her face, but she never allowed herself to forget Midoriya's desperation to save her life.

It was safe to say that both of them had a small crush on him (not necessarily a romantic one, but a very strong friend-crush, to be sure), but neither one really liked to talk about it. They enjoyed their friendship, and certainly did not want to see it fall apart over a guy. There was also the fact that they may or may not have liked _each other_ in "that way" alongside Midoriya. That was also a factor.

Currently, the two girls were not thinking about their love lives (or, indeed, even their _friend_ -love lives), because they were in a fairly bad situation – and also lost. The lost part wasn't so much of a problem; they knew how to deal with that sort of thing. The problem was that they were alone in a forest, but it wasn't quite _right_.

The forest evidently did not know how to be a forest properly, because several of the trees growing there were doing so upside down. A horde of angry (and probably hungry) rabbits chased a large, terrified jaguar through the underbrush – or, as the case appeared to be, the _over_ -brush – and seemed to be gaining on it. The trees also didn't seem to be entirely of where they were supposed to be, and every few minutes, one would get up and reorganize itself in an effort to be a bit more comfortable. Some trees seemed to be have had trouble deciding whether they wanted to be apple trees or orange trees and had settled for a bit of a mix, while other trees had forgone the whole fruit idea and had instead begun sprouting cacti, donuts, moldy sponges, and, in the case of some very peculiar trees, garish cellular devices.

One tree in particular seemed to have a nasty sense of humor and, upon seeing the jaguar's plight, had stopped growing plums and had begun growing more of the angry rabbits (all of the rabbits in the tree and on the ground, while very angry, were still the size of rabbits, so it was unclear what they intended to do once they caught up to the jaguar, but apparently the tree was eager to find out). The plums had a bit of a different view of things – they had been the only plums growing in this particular area of the forest, if only because their tree had felt like showing off to the other trees (who didn't really care, being trees), and they were feeling a tad left out. Their tree showed no concern of their plight and busied itself with laughing at the hapless jaguar. Tree laughter, as Ochako and Tsuyu learned that day, sounds exactly like any other sound a tree might make. Trees have limited vocabulary, but quite extensive actions ranging from laughing like a maniac to spewing out slightly tipsy sap after having had too much to drink at their cousin's birthday party last Wednesday (tree digestion is a strange thing, and even trees haven't quite figured it out yet).

The other problem the two girls were facing is that, while they were indeed alone in the forest, there was someone else alone in the forest _with_ them – someone they knew, did not want to know, and were currently hiding from in the hopes that she wouldn't notice them and go away. Unfortunately, the tree the two were hiding behind decided that it wasn't really comfortable hiding the heroes-in-training from the bloodthirsty psychopath, and made the hasty decision to go somewhere else (maybe help that jaguar out with the rabbit problem – it was only fair), leaving Ochako and Tsuyu in plain sight of one Toga Himiko. She seemed very happy to see them.

"Ochako-chan! Tsuyu-chan!" the villain squealed happily. "I missed you guys so much!" Toga ran forward, arms outstretched for a hug (and/or possibly a good blood-draining). Ochako and Tsuyu looked at one another, backing away.

"Is this the part where we run?" Ochako asked quietly. Tsuyu shook her head. The two girls dodged at the last second, causing Toga to run into a tree. The villain stumbled around a bit, dazed.

"This is where we _walk_ ," Tsuyu corrected her friend. "Calmly, quietly, and, um–"

"Fast?" Ochako suggested.

"Yes, that seems about right," the frog-girl agreed. Toga straightened, turned, and grinned at them. "Okay, _now_ we run." They ran.

* * *

Waking up in a room dripping goo was, in general, a rather unpleasant experience. Waking up in a room dripping goo that also happened to have a serial killer in it was a lot worse. Luckily for Ashido Mina, Tokoyami Fumikage was there as well, and his Dark Shadow was currently keeping the man with the knife on the opposite side of the room while the two teenagers desperately searched for a door.

"Who the heck is that guy?" Ashido shrieked. Tokoyami shrugged.

"I don't know why you're asking me," he replied, in a tone that might've made one think he wasn't completely terrified.

"I'm Rodney," said Rodney cheerfully. "I'd like to murder you, if you don't mind."

"WE MIND!" Ashido yelled. "We mind very much!"

"Ashido, do you see anything that might be helpful?" Tokoyami asked. Ashido glanced over the room again.

"Maybe there's something underneath – er, above – the ceiling goo!" she said thoughtfully. "You hold off Psycho McStabby, and I'll try and get rid of that stuff!"

"Got it," Tokoyami said grimly. Rodney grinned. They were putting up quite the fight. Still… it would be annoying if they found an escape before he did. Since the shadow didn't seem all that easy to get past, he threw his knife at the pink-haired girl. The bird-boy's shadow snatched out and clipped the knife, sending it spinning off course. It smashed hilt first into the only light in the room (a small oil lamp that had clearly seen better days), knocking it over. There was the sound of smashing glass and the room went dark. Tokoyami tensed.

"Uh-oh," he mumbled.

'Uh-oh' was indeed the correct response, though for more reasons than the boy had in mind. The goo was, as it turned out, flammable. As the room went up in flames black as night, Dark Shadow let out an ear-piercing screech.

 **AN: And that, my friends, is chapter two! I hope you liked it! The bit at the beginning is, of course, my own headcanon about Quirks, and Rodney was actually not a planned character. He just kinda… wrote himself into the story, I guess. I doubt he'll have too big a role, but who knows. Anyhow, the next chapter will have another one of my headcanons – this time about the spy at Yuuei. If you follow me on Tumblr, you might've seen me write a bit about who I think it is – well, actually, you probably haven't, since no one read that particular post. But I am** _ **very**_ **excited for it! Next chapter will have the spy, as well as a couple other characters. Ah, I don't think I'll be revealing the spy's identity just yet, though. You'll have to wait a bit for that! Thank for reading! Kitty out.**


	3. I, Spy

**AN: I'm starting this chapter just after finishing the last one. I'm on a roll with this story! Ah, but knowing me I'll end up hitting a road block and not writing at all for half a year… hope that doesn't happen for a while, at least. I don't have a whole lot to say write now. I think… yes, I'll give you a little reminder of where everyone is, shall I? Bakugou and Midoriya are with Tulip LeVance, a Quark, in an area seemingly populated by non-conformist electromagnetic radiation and visible punctuation marks. Iida and Todoroki are with Manzanea, a young mantis-like creature, in a field of grassy pink knives (or, more accurately, knifey pink grass) and giant skinny mushrooms. Ashido and Tokoyami are in a small, goo-dripping (and currently on fire) room with Rodney Flatfoot, an immortal serial killer, and an out-of-control Dark Shadow. Uraraka and Asui are in a semi-sentient forest where half of the flora/fauna is having a nervous breakdown and the other half is having an early midlife crisis. Trapped with them is Toga Himiko, a dangerous member of the League of Villains. And little Timmy just fell down the well! …Okay, I made that last part up. Enjoy!**

 **Oh, and before anyone asks: Manzanea wasn't paying attention. It's not a plothole, just a five-year-old being a five-year-old.**

Chapter Three – I, Spy

The spy at Yuuei had actually being doing their job fairly well. They had blended in with everyone, made some friends, and had had very little trouble in passing information to the people trying to massacre the hero population (of which the spy was technically a part, but not really). Now, however, they were trapped in some strange place where very little made sense, and this was almost _certainly_ not part of the plan.

At least, it better not have been, or Shigaraki Tomura was going to get a water balloon dropped on him – preferably one filled with something rather unpleasant, like spiders. Or perhaps sulfuric acid would do.

Once Iida adapted to the giant mantis following them around (it only took three more fainting episodes and a couple screams of terror), he found that Manzanea was actually quite interesting. She was also just as confused about him as he was about her, and the two got into a long conversation about Iida's glasses once he realized she didn't know what they were.

Todoroki, on the other hand, was very close to grabbing one of the pink grass blades and stabbing himself in the head to try and block out the constant chatter. He walked a fair distance ahead of the other two, freezing the grass knives in their way so that no one had to worry about accidentally stabbing their foot (or puncturing their exoskeleton).

As they walked, the mushrooms became more numerous, to the point where it became nearly impossible to see where they were going.

"Manzanea," Todoroki said, cutting into his companions' conversation. "Do you think you can climb up one of those things?" Manzanea tried, but her pincers couldn't get a good grip, slicing through the flesh of the mushroom like it was heated butter.

[[ _I cannot,_ ]] the mantis replied. Todoroki nodded, refraining from making a snide remark – she was only five, after all.

"Todoroki-kun, would it be possible to use your Quirk here?" Iida asked.

"Can't," Todoroki said absently. He was more focused on trying to figure out to climb the mushroom than paying attention to his classmate. "If I burn down all the mushrooms, I could seriously damage this place's ecosystem." Iida was silent for a moment.

"True," the bespectacled boy acknowledged. "But I was actually asking if you could use your ice to get us on top of the mushroom." Todoroki felt heat rise to his cheeks. _Duh_.

"Um, yes, probably," he said, grateful that he wasn't stuck with a classmate who'd mock him over such a silly mistake (mainly Bakugou, but Ashido and Hagakure too). He closed his eyes, focused, and activated his Quirk. Manzanea yelped as the ice formed under them, building up a pillar and lifting them skyward.

[[ _What is this?_ ]] She demanded, her clicks rather shrill.

"Just something I can do," Todoroki told her.

[[ _You made solid water out of nothing!_ ]] She shrieked. [[ _And you can do this whenever you see fit?_ ]] Todoroki shrugged.

"I'll get frostbite if I'm not careful," he admitted. "But basically, yes." The mantis's face was impossible for a human to read, but Todoroki got the distinct impression that she was very impressed by this.

[[ _Can you do this as well?_ ]] She asked Iida. He shook his head.

"No, my Quirk allows me to move very quickly," he explained. The two began chattering away once more, and Todoroki returned his focus to finding a way out of the mushroom forest. They seemed to be heading in the right direction, but Manzanea was beginning to complain that she was tired.

Todoroki wondered if either of his companions would object to taking an ice slide to the area where the stalks stopped and then perhaps taking a nap.

* * *

Midoriya Izuku hit the ground (at least, he _thought_ it was ground – there was no way to be certain unless he opened his eyes, and he didn't really feel like doing that).

"Ouch," he mumbled.

"Oh, good, you're alive," a familiar voice chirped. Midoriya sighed and allowed his eyelids to crack open. He was met with the overly cheerful face of Tulip LeVance. "I haven't the foggiest idea where that friend of yours ended up, though. We must have gotten separated when we fell into that hole. Dreadful shame, but who knows? Perhaps you'll run into him again at some point." Midoriya closed his eyes again.

"And now I've lost Kacchan," he mumbled. "Just… great. Go me." After a moment, he reopened his eyes and slowly sat up. At the very least, he seemed to have escaped the annoying area he'd been before, but this new place wasn't a whole lot better.

"Well, he wasn't a particularly pleasant person," LeVance noted. "Has a bit of a temper, I'd say." Midoriya looked at him.

"Just 'a bit'?" he asked carefully. LeVance shrugged.

"Maybe more than a bit," he admitted. "Still, I always try to look on the bright side of things." Midoriya looked around.

"At least the light isn't weird anymore," he mumbled. He also couldn't hear any punctuation, so that was probably a good sign.

"No, this area just seems to have lots of rocks," LeVance said. "Oh, this whole place is truly fascinating, wouldn't you agree?"

"Sure," said Midoriya, "but I still want to leave." LeVance gave him a slightly exasperated look.

"I thought I told you that's probably not going to happen," he said. "Still, no harm in trying, I suppose. On the bright side, at least you seem to have gotten lucky."

"How am I lucky?" Midoriya asked, frowning.

"Ah, well," Tulip began, looking slightly uncomfortable. "You see… the thing is, this whole place doesn't have a concrete set of rules. It sort of… makes them up as it goes along, and different people end up in different circumstances. Only, you hit your head rather hard and were out for a while, you see, and… well, your 'time' has stopped."

"I'm sorry, _what_?" Midoriya tried to control the volume of his voice, but it was difficult. "What does that even _mean_?"

"Er, well, maybe it's a bit too soon to be saying that," LeVance quickly corrected himself, "it's probably more accurate to say that, at the very least, you currently don't require any water." Midoriya opened his mouth to question this, and then realized that LeVance was right – he wasn't at all thirsty, despite having had nothing to drink at all in the past–

"How long have I been here?" he wondered.

"You mean here specifically, or this place in general?" Tulip asked.

"In general."

"Well, that's a bit difficult to answer," LeVance admitted. "You see, time didn't actually _exist_ in our previous location, nor did space. So, arguably, we stopped existing for a bit, only no one noticed because it happened outside of any known timeline."

"How many timelines are there?" Izuku questioned. Tulip shrugged.

"Haven't the foggiest," he said cheerfully. "Around infinity, if I had to guess."

"Oh. Wait, is Kacchan still back there?" he asked, alarmed.

"No way to know for sure where he is," Tulip told him. "Literally speaking, though, he is no longer there. You see, _we_ aren't there, and since that place only exists to people who are currently _there_ , it doesn't exist to us right now. And, since it's outside of the timeline, if he hasn't already gotten out then he never will. Time is a complicated and often unfriendly creature, and it often doesn't like being ignored, intentionally or not."

"So… if Kacchan didn't fall through that hole, that means he's dead?" Midoriya asked slowly, trying to work out what LeVance was saying.

"No, actually, it just means he stopped existing altogether. It shouldn't have any negative effects, though."

"The death of my classmate won't have any negative effects?" Midoriya demanded. "How can you _say_ that? He was–"

"Do you feel anything?" Tulip asked calmly.

"I– what?"

"Do you feel anything, knowing that he is dead?" Tulip repeated. "Shame, grief, joy– anything like that?"

"Well, no, I–" Midoriya stopped. He didn't.

"You can't have any attachments to someone who doesn't exist," Tulip said simply. "You still have your memories of him, I assume, but if he's still stuck there then you won't really care."

"But he might not be?" Midoriya asked, hopefully. Tulip gave him a curious look.

"Oh, it's definitely possible that he got out – plausible, even, if he's as lucky as you are," Tulip said slowly. "However, I have no idea how long it took him, assuming he didn't come out the same way we did."

"Do holes like that happen often?" Midoriya asked, trying to wrap his mind around everything.

"I couldn't tell you!" LeVance's slightly unsettling cheeriness had returned, and he looked around the area. "On the other hand, I think that girl knows you." Izuku turned around.

"Midoriya!" Kendou Itsuka yelled, running towards him. "Is that you?"

"Yeah!" he called back. "Uh, Kendou, right?" She stopped a few feet away from him, looking at Tulip suspiciously. "It's okay, he's friendly," Midoriya told her quickly.

"That's good," she muttered. "Only company I've had is a giant biscuit."

"A biscuit?" Midoriya asked, confused. She nodded.

"I know it sounds crazy, but there's a giant biscuit walking around. Keeps trying to eat me," she said. "What's more, hitting it doesn't seem to actually do anything."

"Oh dear," said LeVance. "That sounds unpleasant." Kendou gave him an annoyed look.

"Ya think?" she grumbled. "I'm pretty sure it can't climb, but it can–" Kendou was interrupted by a thumping sound as the baked good in question leapt up onto the rock, looking hungrily at them. "-Jump," Kendou finished. "It can jump."

"Might I suggest running?" LeLance offered. Kendou and Midoriya nodded.

"Likin' that plan," Kendou mumbled. The three took off.

"Why does it have legs?" Midoriya shrieked. "And how does it know where we are? I don't see a nose or ears or eyes or anything!"

"Less talking, more running!" Kendou yelled. "I am not going to have 'death by biscuit' on my tombstone!"

"Oh, you needn't worry about that!" Tulip told her. "You won't have a gravestone if we all get eaten!"

"That's not helpful!" Izuku screamed. The three turned a corner and came face to face with a large wall of stone.

"This wasn't here before!" Kendou yelled in frustration.

"That's not too surprising," LeVance told her. "Things like this just happen, you know." Kendou looked like she wanted to make a retort, but the biscuit rounded the corner, lunged forward, and immediately caught fire. It stood there for a moment as if confused, and then promptly exploded.

"Wha–" Midoriya began.

"Congratulations!" said a voice from nowhere. "You have unlocked the achievement 'Toast'! Your reward is toast. Enjoy!" A piece of toast fell out of the sky and landed on the ground. It had fallen straight through the clouds and was thus rather soggy.

"Great," said Kendou flatly. "And now we're in a video game."

"Congratulations!" the voice said. "You have unlocked the achievement 'No Shit, Sherlock'!" Your reward is a new title: 'Captain Obvious'. Enjoy!" Bright red words reading "Captain Obvious, Declarer of the Readily Apparent" appeared above Kendou's head. She tried to punch them, but her hand went straight through the letters.

"So… this whole place is a video game?" Midoriya asked. LeVance shook his head.

"No, just this area," he said. "Once we get out of here and end up somewhere else, this will likely all be rendered entirely pointless." The wall of stone that had been blocking them slid into the ground, leaving the path ahead open for travel. "Off we go, then!" And off they went.

* * *

Kirishima Eijirou was lost. He had been talking to Kaminari on the phone, and then he'd been somewhere completely different, and now he was lost. Luckily for him, he wasn't lost alone.

"Hatsume, do you have anything that can start a fire?" Sero Hanta asked. "I'm getting a little cold." Hatsume Mei shook her head.

"Most of my babies didn't come with me," she said, looking sadly at the rocks she was trying to create a spark with. Sero sighed.

"Damn." He looked at Kirishima. "What about you, man? Got any matches or something like that?"

"Sorry, dude," Kirishima grinned at him. "Man, wouldn't it be great if Bakugou were here? Then we could get a fire going!"

"Bakugou's an ass, man," Sero said, shaking his head. "I'd prefer Todoroki."

"Todoroki doesn't like using his fire, though," Kirishima pointed out. "I wouldn't want to make him. And Bakugou's cool, really. He's totally–"

"Manly?" Sero finished, smirking at his friend. "Sure, whatever, buddy. I still don't see what you see in him."

"Well, I–" Kirishima stopped. "Hey!" Sero laughed and Hatsume looked up, eyes twinkling.

"Ohhhh, so it's like _that_ , is it?" she asked mischievously.

"What? No!" Kirishima protested. "It's not like that at all! We're just friends!"

"Yeah, but it's _Bakugou_ ," Sero pointed out. "Come on, man, no one's judging you." Hatsume gave him a funny look.

"You and I are judging him," she said. "Right now." The rocks she was holding made a clicking sound, and a small spark appeared. "Victory!"

"Aw, yeah!" Sero cheered. "Warmth!" The three spent the whole night talking and laughing, teasing and being teased, and just generally ignoring the fact that they had no idea what the hell was going on.

* * *

Elsewhere, an unconscious teenager with spiky ash-blond hair washed up on a beach. There was a village nearby, and, if he had gotten lucky, a fisherman (or what passed as one) would've found him. But he didn't get lucky, and the village people weren't the ones to find him.

When Bakugou Katsuki regained consciousness, he found himself staring into an all-too-familiar face.

"Hey there, kid," said Dabi, grinning. "Long time no see."

 **AN: And that's a wrap! I meant to bring in Kirishima earlier, but… that didn't happen for some reason. Right now, Asui, Uraraka, Ashido, Tokoyami, and Bakugou are in the most danger, I'd say. But at least Midoriya, Kendou, Hatsume, Iida, Todoroki, LeVance, Manzanea, and Sero are okay! Or are they…? :D Well, thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time! Kitty out.**


	4. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

**AN: So… no comments on the last chapter yet. I don't think I'll post this one until at least one person is suitably concerned. Anyhow, let's go over what happened last time! The spy is contemplating murdering their boss. Todoroki, Iida, and Manzanea are still stuck in the mushroom area. Midoriya, LeVance, and Kendou are stuck with in a video game-like area with a sarcastic narrator. Kirishima, Sero, and Hatsume are spending the night in an undisclosed location. Oh, and Bakugou just got kidnapped – again - by Dabi (again).**

Chapter Four – Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…

The worst moment in Yagi Toshinori's life had been when he learned that Shimura Nana was dead. Several not-quite-as-bad-but-still-not-great moments had followed in his hero career, and he thought this particular moment was possibly going to trump them all.

"Anything?" Kodai Yui piped up, giving the retired hero a worried look as he put down the phone.

"Not yet," he said, sighing and rubbing his eyes. The school had been getting calls all morning from parents wondering if they knew where the kids were. Half the staff was busy telling the parents that they were doing everything they could to find them (even though school hadn't technically started yet – the kids had been celebrating their last free weekend with their families) and the other half was actually trying to do something.

At first, it was obvious – all of the missing students had been from the Heroics Department, the students that had been about to begin their second year. But then Hatsume Mei had been reported missing, and that pattern didn't make any sense. All Might had privately wondered if the missing students were those connected to Midoriya Izuku, but checking up on Shinsou Hitoshi had proved fruitless – the brainwashing boy was fine, albeit a tad concerned.

And then there were the students that hadn't been taken, despite fitting into the original pattern. There were more missing students from Eraserhead's homeroom than from Blood King's, but there didn't appear to be any obvious pattern (at least, not one that would've included Hatsume and excluded people like Kodai).

All of the students had been recalled to the school once it was discovered that they weren't safe at home, and the second years of the Heroics Department had barricaded themselves in the dormitory along with All Might and some of their parents.

Kodai Yui, Monoma Neito, Kouda Kouji, Yaoyorozu Momo, Mineta Minoru, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Yanagi Reiko, Shouji Mezou, Komori Kinoko, Kuroiro Shihai, Honenuki Juuzou, Shouda Nirengeki, Bondo Kojirou, Tsubura Kousei, Tsunotori Pony, Shishida Juurouta, Kamikiri Togaru, Fukidashi Manga, Rikidou Satou, Ojiro Mashirao, Aoyama Yuuga, and Kaibara Sen were the only students left. Twenty-two students in total, which meant that only eighteen (nineteen, counting Hatsume) were missing, and that meant that more than half the students were safe.

Family members were also staying at the dorms, out of concern for the safety of themselves and their relatives. Midoriya Inko, Asui Satsuki and Asui Samidare, Mr. Bakugou, Todoroki Fuyumi, and Iida Tensei were all present. Tensei did his best to give supportive tips to the heroes in training while trying not to worry. Inko had taken to keeping a close eye on Satsuki and Samidare, partially to take her mind off of her missing son and partly because their parents were away on business and couldn't return (although, Asui Beru had informed them over the phone, they desperately wanted to). Fuyumi had busied herself with teaching the cooped-up students, trying to cover for the occupied staff. Mr. Bakugou and Mrs. Jirou did their best to provide support to both teachers and students while Mr. Jirou printed and put up missing signs and Mrs. Bakugou joined the search personally after making it very clear that she was even more loud-mouthed and stubborn than her son and would not be dissuaded from helping. Mr. Uraraka wasn't able to stop working, but he did spread the word of the missing children as far as he could (apparently, construction workers had a rather large grapevine in case of emergencies – it always helped to have people who were big and strong and carrying heavy objects standing behind you when you needed to get something done quickly), and Mrs. Uraraka made it a point to check on each of the households, especially the ones that were currently empty.

The students, when not attending Fuyumi's impromptu lessons, spent their time doing what little they could from the dorms. The more techno-savvy students searched the Internet, while others brainstormed possible places for the heroes to look. Kodai, Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Shouji, Kaibara, Ojiro, and Kamikiri had all volunteered to help the teachers with on-campus tasks, making it easier for the pro heroes to actually get some hero business done. Yaoyorozu and Kodai helped All Might man the phones, answering calls from parents and offering advice on how to help. Ojiro and Shouji worked with Lunch Rush to make sure everyone had enough to eat. Kaibara and Kamikiri helped out in more abstract ways – like filing paperwork, doing basic chores, and watching the security cameras to make sure Shigaraki Tomura didn't disintegrate the doors again while everyone was busy.

Jirou, on the other hand, had a more unique job. Due to her Quirk, she had been sent off with Tsukauchi Naomasa to the police station, where she and her mother helped eavesdrop on radio lines and the like. She was the only student allowed off-campus, but she had even less freedom, as the police stationed to which she was confined wasn't particularly big.

However, there was one thing that put everybody even more on edge: despite the obvious distractions going on with all the heroes, crime had dropped. All Might wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it worried him that the villains weren't making a move. It was possible, of course, that they were still recovering from the loss of their leader, All For One, but not all villains were associated with the League, and even small-time crooks seemed to be inactive. Some of the teachers had begun to wonder if this was a new tactic; if the villains were intentionally lowering the crime rate while the heroes were otherwise occupied in order to make it seem like heroes did more harm than good (which some people were already saying and more beginning to agree with, regardless of whether or not the League was behind it), but they all knew that there was simply another option, one that no one wanted to consider: the villains weren't behind it at all. It was entirely possible that some of their members had disappeared as well (which was _terrifying_ , because no one wanted to think that they had to deal with something else now too), and Shigaraki Tomura had effectively put the whole of the criminal underground on pause in order to figure out what was going on.

* * *

Shigaraki Tomura had, in fact, put the whole of the criminal underground on pause. He was not a particularly big fan of some of his cohorts (honestly, the only one he tolerated at all was Kurogiri), but he wasn't thrilled with the idea of someone _else_ killing off his underlings. He also didn't like the fact that absolutely no one seemed to have any idea what was going on – the Broker didn't know anyone who could help, their entire information network was useless, and their spy at Yuuei had gone completely silent, meaning that they had probably vanished off to god-knows-where as well.

Kurogiri was also bothered by the current situation, but he was more bothered by Shigaraki's reaction to it. Shigaraki was not the type of person to calmly mull things over in a bad situation – he was the type to throw a tantrum and break everything in the room until he calmed down. And yet, there he was, mulling. It was unnerving, to say the least, and Kurogiri resolved to stand by Shigaraki's side even more than usual. After all, the young man was the closest thing he had to a family, and he had no desire to see any harm come to him.

The other villains weren't as calm as Kurogiri and Shigaraki were (although it was very likely that a huge part of the general unease was coming from Shigaraki's complete lack of discomfort – they were used to his temper tantrums, used to just getting out of the way until Kurogiri calmed him down, but they didn't know what to do when Shigaraki _wasn't_ throwing a hissy fit. He was angry, and everyone knew it, but his silence made him all the more frightening and unpredictable.

Spinner, Magne, and Twice had simply chosen to avoid Shigaraki at any and all costs unless absolutely necessary, and Kurogiri had ended up becoming their messenger, in a sense (it didn't really bother him, as he didn't actually have anything else to do). Mr. Compress, on the other hand, had been given the job of spying on the police station, partly to see if there was any news, and partly to figure out where the rest of the Vanguard Action Squad was being held so Kurogiri could get them out. Of course, since the League was undoubtedly suspect in all of the disappearances, the cells containing the imprisoned villains would likely be under extra supervision. The League wasn't even considering trying to break out All For One – that was a suicide mission if ever there was one – and so, when not carrying messages, Kurogiri busied himself with the Noumu that specialized in tracking. After all, the missing people, villains and heroes alike, were probably in the same place.

Hopefully, Dabi and Toga would keep that in mind in case they came across Bakugou Katsuki. While he had adamantly refused their invitation, Kurogiri could think of several other uses the League had for the boy, and Shigaraki wanted him back either way, if only out of spite.

Yes, Kurogiri thought, Bakugou would be an excellent asset to the League of Villains – whether he wanted to be or not.

* * *

The police station was nothing like it was in the movies, but Jirou had known that to be the case long before she stepped into the building. She had thought that eavesdropping on people would be extremely boring, which it was, for the most part, but every now and again something amusing would pop up, such as the man who hadn't gotten enough sleep one night and had ended up confusing a couple of banana peels with his shoes.

The officers too were very friendly, and Tsukauchi Naomasa, a close friend of All Might's, had been tasked with supervising the illegal (albeit necessary) activities that Jirou and her mother were partaking in. He jokingly told Jirou that, should heroism not turn out to be her ideal job, she was welcome to join the police force – or, better yet, a government agency of some kind. Jirou, blushing, had replied that that probably wasn't going to happen.

"Are you alright, Kyouka?" her mother asked. Jirou looked up from her dinner.

"Huh?" she blinked. "Yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Aside from your missing classmates and new job?" her mother said drily. "It doesn't look like you've been getting a lot of sleep, hon." Jirou shrugged.

"I'm worried about my friends, obviously," she replied. "But they're pretty tough, so I doubt they're in too much trouble. I just wanna find them and get this over with." Her mother's eyes narrowed.

"Kyouka," she said, in that sweet, motherly, 'I-know-you're-up-to-something' look of hers, "Have you been staying up late to listen in on people?" Jirou shifted in her seat.

"No?" she offered weakly. Her mother sighed.

"I know this is difficult, honey," she said softly, "but you need to get some rest."

"But what if something happens?" Jirou protested. "What if what we're looking for – listening for, whatever – pops up while I'm 'getting some rest'?"

"Do you want to take shifts?" her mother asked. "I'm okay with that, but you do need to get some sleep, baby." Jirou's shoulders fell.

"I–" she began. A yawn cut her off. "Yeah, okay," she mumbled. "Shifts sound good." Her mother leaned across the table and placed her hand on her daughter's cheek.

"We'll find them," she promised. Jirou smiled.

"You bet we will."

* * *

When fleeing in terror from a bloodthirsty villain with a knife, running into a dead end was one of the worst possible things that could happen.

Uraraka swore loudly as she and Asui rounded a corner, Toga not too far behind them, only to see a solid wall of obsidian reaching into the sky and, more importantly, blocking their path.

"You've been spending too much time with Bakugou-chan," Asui said, trying to ease the tension. Uraraka ignored the quip.

"I don't suppose you can jump to the top of that," she asked weakly. Asui shook her head.

"No," she admitted. "But I might be able jump over the side of these cliffs." On either side of their increasingly shorter rode were two cliffs, rocks protruding from the side. Either one would be easier to bypass than the obsidian, but slowing down could result in getting stabbed by an insane teenager. On top of that, there was no way to tell what was on top of the rocks, and, after the things they'd seen in the forest, there wasn't a limit to the possibilities.

"Found you~" Toga sang, rushing towards them. Asui grabbed Uraraka's hand and leapt onto one of the ledges. "No fair!" the villain whined. "I can't cut you up if you're all the way up there!"

"That's the point," Asui said bluntly. Toga opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by a loud thumping noise from behind one of the cliff walls – fortunately, the one _opposite_ from Asui and Uraraka.

"What was that?" Uraraka whispered.

"Let's not find out," Asui suggested. She made to leap up to the next ledge, but nearly lost her balance when the ground shook from another 'thump', this one considerably louder and closer.

"Uh-oh," said Toga, just as the opposite cliff wall exploded inward. The three girls stared in silence at the creature that had emerged. It was, at the very least, fifty feet tall, and about thirty feet wide. It had jagged spikes for teeth and, in the center of its forehead, an enormous red eye.

The Cyclops advanced towards them, first looking at the two halfway up the cliff and then turning its gaze to the bottom, where Toga stood, paralyzed, as a much easier target. The villain took several steps back until she collided with the obsidian wall, staring up at the creature before her in terror. The Cyclops reached out a hand towards her, and Asui reacted.

As she jumped for the next ledge, her tongue shot out towards Toga, wrapping around the villain and yanking her away from the colossal monstrosity. Without pause, she leapt for the top of the cliffs, barely missing a swipe from the Cyclops, and landed in a roll. Toga and Uraraka landed a little less gracefully.

"You…" Toga began. "Why did you–?"

"I'm a hero," Asui told her. "I've also read _The Odyssey_. I have a pretty good idea of what that thing wants." Toga shuddered, her fingers clenched tightly around her knife.

"Oh," she mumbled. A thundering noise was heard as the giant began to climb.

"Truce or we ditch you," Asui said quickly.

"Truce!" Toga said immediately. "Beautiful, safe, wonderful truce."

"You're not gonna try and stab us?" Uraraka asked suspiciously. Toga shook her head vehemently.

"No killing," she agreed. "No killing, mutilating, maiming, or otherwise intentionally bringing harm to in any way, shape, or form."

"Great!" said Uraraka brightly. The giant's grimy fingernails appeared on top of the cliff, and one angry red eye rose to glower at them. "Then let's get the _hell_ out of here." The Cyclops bellowed, and the three girls fled.

 **AN: And that's a wrap! Still no reviews on chapter 3, though, so this one might take a while to come out. On the plus side, maybe I'll be able to work on one of the** _ **other**_ **fics I'm writing. Ah, well. Who knows? Remember, I'm not going to post another chapter until the most recent one has at least one review. Kinda a low bar, I know, but I'm a little desperate for feedback. Did I say a little? Sorry, a lot. I'm a lot desperate for feedback. Kitty out.**

 **Okay, fine, there's at least one review on chapter three, so… yeah, you guys can have chapter four now. Seriously, though, from now on I'm not gonna post another chapter until the most recent one has gotten reviewed. New rule. Sorry.**


	5. Trial By Fire

**AN: I'm starting chapter five now, in the hopes of getting it out on my birthday (which, knowing me, probably won't happen). Anyhow, recap time! The heroes, the remaining kids, and some family members are searching for the missing people and trying not to have a heart attack. Shigaraki is scaring the other villains by not throwing a tantrum while Kurogiri continues being Team Mom™ and keeping the League from imploding on itself. Jirou and her mom are working at the police station using their Quirk to eavesdrop and find out if anyone knows what the hell is going on. Asui and Uraraka have formed a very uncomfortable (yet probably necessary) truce with Toga in order to escape a hungry Cyclops.**

 **Location unknown: Kaminari Denki, Hagakure Tooru, Rin Hiryuu, Shiozaki Ibara, Tokage Setsuna, Kamakiri Togaru, and Awase Yousetsu**

 **Warnings: Foul language, violence towards minors, some ickiness, and the longest unbroken scene in the story thus far**

 **Basically, this chapter is where the story starts getting a little darker. I'm thinking I should up the rating, but I'm not entirely sure. Please let me know what you think!**

Chapter Five – Trial By Fire

Instinct overcame any form of rational thought, and Bakugou threw himself backwards. Unfortunately, he was propped up against a wall of a cave near the beach he'd washed up on, so all he accomplished was a headache. Dabi laughed.

"Smooth move," he sneered. Step two was to explode the villain's face off, but Bakugou quickly found that his hands were tied behind his back in a rather inconvenient position. "Don't try to blast me," Dabi taunted. "You'll just blow your hands off, and probably bleed to death. You're a hostage, so it's better if you're alive."

 _Hostage_. The word itself made Bakugou even more infuriated than he already was. He opened his mouth to start yelling, only to find his tongue suddenly caught between Dabi's index finger and thumb, both of which were slightly heated.

"Don't start yelling now," the villain said softly. "I want you _alive_. Not necessarily in one piece." His fingers grew even warmer, to the point where any more heat would actually hurt rather than just cause discomfort. "Piss me off too much, and I'll melt your tongue out, got it?" Bakugou glowered at him, half-tempted to bite his fingers. Dabi, seeming fully aware of this desire, grinned at him. "Try it," he offered. "See what happens. I was nice enough not to gag you, unlike that teacher of yours back at the Sports Festival, so show some respect." He released Bakugou's tongue and stepped back.

"Yeah, you're a pinnacle of virtue," Bakugou snarled. "Also, go _right the fuck to hell_." Dabi's grin widened, and a flame sparked into existence on the tip of his finger. He held the lit digit up in front of Bakugou's face, slowly bringing it towards his right eye.

"I could blind you, you know," he murmured. Bakugou leaned as far away as he could, which wasn't very far. "I could blind you, burn your tongue out… I could probably even take away your hearing too, if I felt like it. You're not in much of a position to be talking shit, kid. Shigaraki isn't here. If you piss me off too much, I'll just kill you and use one of your buddies as a hostage instead." Fury bubbled up within Bakugou, but he did his absolute best to stay silent. It was probably not the best idea to antagonize a pyrokinetic madman who had you tied up and alone in a goddamn cave. Instead, he glared daggers at the other man, who cheerfully patted him on the cheek. "Good boy."

Bakugou almost growled at him, but that would've been counterproductive.

"What. The fuck. Do you. Want." He snarled.

"To get out of here," Dabi said, immediately. "Not that I think you have a way, of course, but you hero types always figure something out. If your pals wanna get you out of here, they'd damn well better get me out of here too. We're a package deal now, kiddo."

"What makes you think anyone else ended up here?" Bakugou asked cautiously.

"You, just now," Dabi replied, giving him a funny look. "I mean, I figured it wasn't just us, but I was operating under the assumption that the people who actually know where they are – i.e., the people who are back in Japan and not wherever the hell we are – would have better luck working this out." He wasn't wrong, but that just made Bakugou even more annoyed. "Get up," Dabi ordered. Bakugou didn't move.

"What's the fucking magic word?" the explosive teen sneered. His mother would've decked him for that, and anyone else would've laughed at the irony. Dabi, however, simply leaned in.

"I'm a villain," he purred, eyes glinting dangerously. "And in case you haven't noticed, you're kind of at my mercy right now. So here's the deal: you be a good little _victim_ , and maybe – just _maybe_ – I'll play nice, yeah?" He leaned in even closer, until there was barely a centimeter of space between their noses, and forcefully yanked Bakugou's head up by the chin to glare down at him. "I'm sure you'd rather not find out what a guy like me might do to a squirt like you that would constitute a criminal offense, but here's a hint: it involves fire, and you. Screaming. A lot. Capisce?" Bakugou swallowed. It suddenly occurred to him that he was in a great deal of shit.

"That's more than one word," he muttered. Dabi sighed and shrugged. For a second, Bakugou felt a surge of hope that Dabi wouldn't hurt him in order to avoid pissing off Shigaraki. But then the villain's hand burst into flames and crashed across his face, sending him sprawling onto the floor of the cave. His cheek burned both from the force of the blow and from the fire, and he had to bite his lip to keep from crying out as his head collided with the ground. As it was, he was barely able to blink away the tears of pain that followed the sudden wooziness.

"This is still me being nice, by the way," Dabi added. Bakugou tried to climb to his feet, but a foot descended on his left cheek, directly on top of the scorched skin, pinning him down. This time, Bakugou was unable to suppress a howl of agony as the burning pain in his cheek nearly doubled. Dabi rotated his ankle, and Bakugou screamed again as the damaged skin grew close to tearing.

After a moment the villain stepped back, and the pain lessened slightly, leaving Bakugou fighting to stop his breath from coming out in gasps. He didn't try to get back up again until Dabi stepped away, and he pressed himself against the wall. He hated the whole situation, but he was fully aware that Dabi – unlike Shigaraki – had no intentions of releasing him from his bonds, nor did he have any problem with hurting someone who couldn't fight back.

"Now that that's settled," Dabi began calmly, as though he hadn't nearly burned Bakugou's face off just moments ago, "Tell me what you know about this place."

"Why?" Bakugou asked, suspiciously. He regretted it a second later when he discovered that talking _really_ hurt his burn.

"You want out. I want out. Pooling our knowledge seems like the best way to accomplish a common goal." Dabi didn't seem to have a problem answering that question, which was good, because Bakugou would prefer to avoid getting burned again or set on fire or whatever.

"Was in a weird place," Bakugou said after a moment, moving his mouth as little as possible to avoid aggravating the wound. "Light 'n dark were all mixed up. And, uh, there was some weird asshole there. Then I fell into a fucking hole."

"That's it?" Dabi asked, disappointed. He sighed. "Well, it's a start, I guess. My turn now." Bakugou blinked.

"You're…"

"I'm sharing information, yes," Dabi said, rolling his eyes. "We'll have to work together to get anywhere. Our long-term goals may be different, but I'm pretty sure our short-term goals are about the same. Working together is for the best; two heads are better than one and whatnot."

"Didn't think you'd want my input," Bakugou admitted.

"'Want' isn't what I'm operating on here," Dabi corrected. "I'm just as lost as you are." He shook his head. "Anyway, I've been here the whole time. I went up to that village over there, but it looks abandoned."

"Then why not stay there?" Bakugou asked. "Probably more comfortable than this fucking cave, at any rate." Dabi shrugged.

"It _looks_ abandoned," he repeated. "I've seen things moving, and I don't feel like finding out what those things are. They're not human."

"What do they look like?" Bakugou demanded. "Fuck, people can look like–"

"Ever seen the movie ' _Alien_ '?" Dabi asked drily. "They look like that, a little. I haven't been close enough to see, because I'm not taking any chances."

"…Those things are afraid of fire, aren't they?" Bakugou asked. "And you and I both happen to have a fuckton of firepower."

"Congrats, you have basic movie knowledge," said Dabi, sarcastically. "There's _lots_ of them, whatever they are, and I don't know if these ones are actually scared of fire at all. And I'm not letting you go, so I don't know why you bothered to include yourself in that equation."

"Worth a shot," Bakugou grumbled angrily. He hadn't expected that to work, but… he should get points for effort. "And I never actually saw the movie, fuckface, I just played the game." Dabi raised an eyebrow.

"Which one?"

"Isolation."

"Well, something tells me that vents aren't going to be a huge problem," the villain drawled. "So unless your solution is blowing us both up or somehow jettisoning ourselves into space, I'm gonna guess you've got nothing."

"I was just fuckin' saying–" Bakugou began to snarl, but Dabi raised a hand and the hero-in-training snapped his mouth closed. For a moment, he thought he was going to get hit again, but Dabi seemed to be listening intently.

"If you made enough noise to drag those things down here," Dabi hissed, "I swear to whatever god this place has that I will feed you to them _limb by limb_." Bakugou wanted to protest, but he also didn't want to draw the attention of whatever the hell those creatures were. After a moment, he heard what Dabi had heard.

It was a noise that sounded like a mix between a chirp, a click, and a hiss. And then there was an inhuman screeching sound followed by a _very_ human scream.

"There's a person out there," Bakugou whispered. His throat suddenly felt very dry, and the pain in his cheek seemed to fade to a dull throb (it hadn't; his attention was just elsewhere).

"Not our problem," Dabi said grimly.

"I'm a goddamn hero!" Bakugou growled. "I have to help–"

"Well, I'm a villain," Dabi snapped back. "And _I_ have to _not die today_. So no, you're not going out there, because we will both get eaten or face-fucked or whatever the hell it is those things do to people." The scream came again, a couple seconds after Dabi finished speaking. "See? They've survived this long."

"That sounds like a kid," Bakugou said quietly. "There's a fucking kid out there and you're fucking leaving them to die."

"What's your point?" Dabi asked coldly. The scream came again, but this time it was cut off by a squelching sound, followed by a gurgling noise and multiple screeches from the creature. If he could've, Bakugou would've pressed his hands over his ears. But he was bound, and there was nothing he could do to block out the crunching and slurping coming from outside their shelter. For the first few minutes of the creatures' meal, a desperate, pained noise would escape their meal every now and again.

"They're still alive," Bakugou said hoarsely. "Those fuckers are–" he didn't finish his sentence as the bile rose up in his throat, and he barely managed to twist his torso in time to avoid vomiting on his legs. Dabi watched the teenager lose whatever the last meal he'd had was.

"Yes, they're eating him – or her, I don't know – alive," Dabi said with an air of disinterest. "But the important thing is that they aren't eating _us_." Bakugou just glowered silently at him. "Y'know, kid, you're not all that intimidating when you're tied up and covered in vomit," Dabi pointed out, rolling his eyes. Bakugou looked away, clenching his jaw as much as his injury allowed.

After several minutes of Bakugou glaring at the wall and Dabi ignoring him, the eating noises outside stopped. There were a few scuttling sounds as the creatures left, but aside from that no noise could be heard from outside the cave.

"Oh yeah," Dabi said suddenly. Bakugou's eyes flickered toward him, but he didn't say anything. "There's a sun here, but it was only up for about an hour earlier. The rest of the time it's been night."

"And I care because…?" Bakugou hissed.

"Because I'm pretty sure those things are less active during the day," Dabi replied, choosing to ignore the sass in his prisoner's voice. "So we have about an hour a day to haul ass and find a new save point, as Shigaraki would say."

"We're not staying here?" Bakugou asked, temporarily forgetting how angry he was. "Those things fucking _eat_ people!"

"And sooner or later they'll find this place," Dabi said calmly. "It's possible that they already have, and the only thing keeping them out is a twisted sense of humor or something. I don't know. In any case, we can't try to signal anyone to our location, because those things are gonna notice it too. Going out there is dangerous. Staying here is suicide. And I'm calling the shots."

"And you expect me to– what, fucking hop?" Bakugou sneered, gesturing towards his bound legs.

"I'll cut your legs loose," Dabi said, giving Bakugou a bored look. "Obviously. I have absolutely no intentions of carrying someone as heavy as a teenage boy. So if you try to run away, I'll just hack your legs off and _then_ carry you."

"Hacking my legs off would kill me," Bakugou pointed out. "I'd fucking bleed to death, you dumb fuck." Dabi grinned at him, holding up his hand and allowing small flames to dance on his palm for a moment.

"I can cauterize the wound," he assured him. "I know how to treat injuries, believe me." He gestured to his scarred body, and then to Bakugou's burnt cheek. "Speaking of injuries, I have something for that. If you behave yourself, I'm willing to share." Bakugou really wanted to yell at him, but he also knew that yelling would only aggravate his burn even more. Stay quiet, get medical attention – it was a win-win, albeit an annoying one.

"What-fucking-ever," he grumbled.

"I knew we could come to an agreement," Dabi said, smirking. He reached into his pocket and dug out a small canister. "Hold still. This stuff will hurt for a moment, but it works really well." Bakugou eyed him suspiciously.

"You sure about that?" he asked. Dabi raised one shoulder in a shrug, unscrewing the lid of the canister. The contents were a light blue, and Bakugou's nose picked up the faint smell of aloe.

"I'm still alive, aren't I?" Dabi asked. Bakugou resisted the urge to respond with 'unfortunately'. "So yeah, I'd say it works." The hero-in-training looked at the scars on his captor's body and relented. Anything that could heal burns of _that_ magnitude was something to be grateful for, no matter how much he despised the man it belonged to.

* * *

Tokage Setsuna was probably the only person who was actually excited about her current situation. Her companions were not only much less thrilled, but also starting to get annoyed by her cheeriness.

"There's just so much to _see_ here!" Tokage rambled.

"We _know_ ," Kamakiri Togaru and Rin Hiryuu groaned together. Shiozaki Ibara shook her head at the antics of her companions. The hog-sixed velociraptor that had taken a shine to Tokage let out a screech as it dug up a rusty, weathered tin box. Tokage beamed.

"Good girl, Lavi!" she cried happily, running to her new friend's side. Lavi screeched again, rubbing her nose against the human girl.

"This is my life now," Kamakiri muttered. "I get to watch one of my classmates adopt a goddamn dinosaur."

"Be nice to Lavi; she's helping us!" Tokage scolded. She managed to force open the box and gasped happily. "Look, food!"

"We have no way of knowing if that's edible, though," Rin pointed out. "Even if the dinosaur can eat it, it doesn't mean _we_ can."

"Thank you, Lavi," Shiozaki said politely, bowing to the dinosaur. "We appreciate your aid." Tokage gave the boys a pointed look. They glanced at one another.

"Thank you, Lavi," Rin echoed dully, eyeing the dinosaur wearily. Lavi made a chirping sound. Rin turned to Kamakiri.

"No," Kamakiri said flatly.

"Kamakiri," Rin said. "I said 'thank you' to the dinosaur. Now _you_ say 'thank you' to the dinosaur."

The dinosaur growled.

Kamakiri said 'thank you' to the dinosaur.

 **AN: And chapter five is done! Woo! That was faster than usual. Anyway, Hagakure, Kaminari, and Awase will show up eventually. Probably. Maybe. I dunno. Please leave a review/comment to let me know what you think (and whether or not I should change up the rating), and I'll see you next time (fun fact: I actually had to go back and edit Bakugou's dialogue to make sure he was swearing enough XD)! Kitty out.**


	6. Lights Out

**AN: I! HAVE! FANART! The wonderful buy-bye-bi on Tumblr has drawn the first place that Midoriya was in and the pink grass where Todoroki and Iida are, and it is** ** _gorgeous_** **. Please go check it out!**

 **Anyhow, moving on, chapter six time! This story is coming along really quickly… I don't think I've ever been able to write this fast before! And you guys are being so wonderful with your comments and reviews; they're so motivating! Seriously, thank you all so much for your support.**

 **Recap time!**

 **Bakugou is stuck with Dabi in a place with unseen monsters that apparently eat people, and Tokage, Kamakiri, Shiozaki, and Rin have befriended a dinosaur called Lavi! Kaminari, Awase, and Hagakure are still unaccounted for.**

 **And… there are characters we haven't seen for a bit, so I'll bring them up too, even though they weren't in the last chapter. Ashido and Tokoyami ended up in a room that doesn't appear to have an exit with an immortal serial killer. To make matters worse, the lights have gone out, the room is on fire, and Dark Shadow may or may not have gone out of control. The spy is also stuck in the weirdness, although that's about all we know, in their case. Kirishima, Hatsume, and Sero are in a place I haven't described yet, and Hatsume has started a fire to keep them warm. Iida and Todoroki are still traveling with Manzanea in the pink grass area, but Todoroki has spotted a place where the mushroom forest ends. Midoriya and LeVance left the first place they were in and ended up in an area that acts like a video game, where they met up with Kendou. The students who didn't disappear are trying not to panic, while the teachers and various family members do their best to find the missing kids. Shigaraki is taking the situation well, despite not knowing what's going on, which is freaking out most of the other villains. Kurogiri is up to no good, and the League has been confirmed to still be after Bakugou. Jirou and her mother are working at the police station to figure out what's going on. Uraraka and Asui have teamed up with Toga in order to escape a Cyclops.**

 **Now, on with the story!**

Chapter Six – Lights Out

Ashido Mina was a very sociable girl. She liked talking to people, and she was about as extroverted as it was possible to be. She liked to think that she was friends with everyone, but her closest friends were Kaminari, Jirou, Kirishima, Sero, and Bakugou (whether or not the latter wanted to admit it). She got along well with her other classmates too, but there were some she spent less time with than others. Satou and Kouda were both quiet people in general, and Ashido always felt like she wasn't letting them have any room to talk. Hagakure and Ojiro mostly hung out with each other, but they were both friendly enough. Midoriya, Uraraka, and Iida had their own little "Three Musketeers" thing going, but Ashido saw at least Midoriya and Uraraka as her friends (Iida wasn't someone she knew all that well, but he was alright). Yaoyorozu, Aoyama, Mineta, Asui, Shouji, and Todoroki weren't people she talked to all that often, but she got along with them, for the most part.

Tokoyami, on the other hand, was a little different. He was, in a strange sense, sort of her polar opposite. Ashido liked to yammer on where Tokoyami preferred to stay silent. Tokoyami liked things considered 'dark' or 'weird' where Ashido liked things that were bright and cheery. Despite that, she would without hesitation call him a friend. They had never really worked together before, but he had defeated her during the Sports Festival, so she knew pretty well what he was capable of. She had also heard about Dark Shadow's rampage during the attack on the training camp, but that had been overshadowed pretty quickly by Bakugou's kidnapping, so the details were a little fuzzy.

And now Dark Shadow was free again, and to make matters worse, the entire room was on fire. While this probably weakened Dark Shadow at least a little bit, there wasn't nearly enough fire to weaken it enough, and smoke was beginning to flood Ashido's lungs.

"Tokoyami?" she rasped, as loudly as she dared. "Are you there?" There was no response, which probably meant that he wasn't conscious. Dark Shadow screeched again, and Ashido barely managed to dive out of the way as it lunged towards her. There was a mad cackle, and Ashido was reminded that there was a man who wanted to kill her stuck in the same room.

"Here, kiddies~!" the man sang. Ashido saw something glint in the light of the flames, and felt a burst of pain underneath her right eye as the knife made a shallow slice.

"No!" She screamed, and lashed out.

Later on, Ashido would come to understand why what she had done was necessary, and that it wasn't her fault. She would realize that instinct had taken over and no one would've blamed her for doing what she did. In the moment, though, the horror set in almost right away as the serial killer got a face full of deadly acid.

Rodney howled in pain as his skin sizzled, the acid eating right through. Anyone else would've died fairly quickly, and Rodney was no exception. A couple of seconds later, however, he was alive again. This time, however, he couldn't see. He also couldn't really _smell_ , because the acid had melted off the majority of his face. He tried opening his mouth to yell, but some of the flesh of his upper lip had melted into that of his lower lip, and the only noise he seemed able to make was a gurgling moan. Ashido saw what she'd done, and screamed again.

To be fair, it wasn't as bad as it could've been, but the poor lighting and the adrenaline rushing through Ashido's veins made the whole thing much worse. Rodney fell to the floor, clutching at his face. This was a fairly foolish thing to do, because most of the floor was on fire, and, after a moment, so was Rodney.

It was like something out of a horror movie, only Ashido liked horror movies. She didn't like this. Something grabbed her wrist, and she instinctively lashed out again, the acid on her palm melting straight through the– wall?

"Let's get out of here," Tokoyami hissed. "Hurry!" For a moment, Ashido wondered how he'd managed to hold off Dark Shadow, but a gurgle of pain and another triumphant screech told her that the Quirk was simply preoccupied with another victim.

The two students slipped through the hole in the wall, Tokoyami leaning heavily on Ashido, exhaustion radiating off of him. Light streamed down from holes in the pale blue canopy of leaves above them, but Ashido was too relieved to notice.

"You're alive!" she sobbed, wrapping her arms around Tokoyami, who blushed slightly. "Oh thank god, you're _alive_."

"Yes," said Tokoyami, slightly flustered. "Uh, so are you." Dark Shadow followed them out of the hole, decreasing in size as it did. Tokoyami gave it an exasperated look. "Sorry for scaring you," he added quietly. Ashido just shook her head and laughed.

"We're alive," she repeated, giggling. "We're _alive_." Tokoyami gave her a small smile, and the two breathed in the deep, cinnamon-scented air.

And then Rodney, now horribly disfigured, exploded from the hole, howling angrily. The two screamed and fled.

"How is he still alive?" Tokoyami demanded. "That shouldn't be possible."

"Probably a Quirk," Ashido suggested, risking a glance over her shoulder and immediately regretting it. She swallowed the bile in her throat – _she_ had caused that. It didn't seem like his current state of unrelenting agony was slowing Rodney down at all, though (if anything, he seemed to be moving faster), so the two continued to flee.

There was no time to really observe the land, but neither one was able to miss the pale blue tree leaves, sea foam green vines, and other oddly colored flora. The two came to a river, which appeared to be filled with light pink cream soda. Dark Shadow easily carried them across, and they turned around to see Rodney reached the riverbank. The river was running far too quickly for him to cross it on his own.

"Let's get out of here before he finds a way across," Tokoyami said quietly.

"Aye," said Dark Shadow. Ashido just nodded, and the two continued on into the oddly colored jungle.

"Where are we, the Land of Pastels?" Ashido wondered, brushing aside soft yellow ivy.

"Maybe this is a new level of a Super Mario game or something," Tokoyami said thoughtfully. Ashido stared at him.

"I… don't think we're in a video game," she said, wondering if he'd hit his head.

"I was joking," Tokoyami told her bluntly. Ashido reddened.

"Right," she mumbled. "Sorry." Tokoyami shrugged and Dark Shadow made a cackling noise. Ashido glared at it. Stupid bird.

* * *

"I hate cheese," Awase Yousetsu declared for the umpteenth time. "I really, _really_ hate cheese." Kaminari Denki nodded.

"Cheese can kiss my ass," he agreed. Hagakure Tooru sighed loudly.

"Never eating it again," she grumbled, stepping through another hole in the enormous block of Swiss cheese they had found themselves traversing. At one point in her life, Hagakure would've said that a world made out of cheese would be hilarious, but now it was borderline traumatizing. "At least we found more Swiss," she offered optimistically.

Swiss cheese was, as they had learned, the best kind. Swiss cheese came with holes already in it, so they hadn't had to dig their way through. Kaminari had, apparently, ended up in a room made out of cheddar, and the other two had stumbled upon him violently throwing it up.

"At least we won't starve," Awase had said at first. He took it back now, deciding that he really would prefer death to eating any more cheese.

"This is hell," Kaminari said bleakly. "This is actually hell. All the religions were wrong. There's no fire or Satan or whatever; just miles and miles of fucking _cheese_." The unlikely trio walked together in silence for a bit longer, until the Swiss abruptly ended and they were faced with a wall of– "Is that _Brie_?"

It was, in fact, Brie. Awase turned to look at the seemingly empty space most likely occupied by Hagakure.

"Kill me," he deadpanned. "I would rather die at the hands of other heroes than allow 'death by cheese' to be written on my grave."

"Well, _I_ don't want to go to prison," Hagakure sniffed.

"I never thought I'd say this," Kaminari began, "but I actually miss Bakugou."

"He'd be helpful in this situation," Awase agreed.

"Or Mina," Hagakure suggested. "She could just melt through all this."

"Don't say stuff like that," Kaminari begged. "Otherwise the next thing we find will be a lake of melted–" He stopped, staring at something behind her in horror.

Hagakure turned around to look back at the Swiss cheese, but it was gone. In its place was a lake of melted cheese.

"Layers of Fear," Awase said, miserably. "We're trapped in the cheesy edition of Layers of Fear. We're going to be haunted by cheese ghosts."

"I am _not_ swimming across that," Hagakure said firmly. "We're gonna have to make a cheese boat or something." Kaminari snickered.

"Yeah, with cheese oars," he added. "We'll go fishing for Goldfish." Awase began to laugh as well.

"We can fight villains made of cheese," Hagakure chimed in, giggling. The three of them stood by the edge of the cheese river, laughing and making jokes about cheese and trying to pretend they weren't slowly dying inside.

* * *

"You have earned: two experience points," the disembodied voice announced as Midoriya kicked a rock in annoyance.

"Why does kicking rocks earn experience?" Kendou demanded.

"I assume this place is meant to drive us mad!" LeVance said cheerfully. "Well, that or it's distracting us from some horrible monster intending to devour us whole. Or maybe it simply–"

"Please stop talking," Midoriya moaned. "You're making this so much worse."

"I'm only stating that–" LeVance began.

"There's a time and a place for saying things," Kendou snapped. "And saying stuff like that can wait until after I've choked our narrator."

"Congratulations!" said the disembodied voice. "You've unlocked the achievement 'Rage Against the Machine'! Your reward is mashed potatoes." A bowl of mashed potatoes dropped from the sky, shattered upon impact, and made a mess.

"Gross." Midoriya said flatly. Kendou inhaled deeply. She looked very close to actually murdering someone.

"Look on the bright side!" LeVance piped up. "At least it's not rain–"

"NO!" Midoriya and Kendou yelled together, glowering at their companion. Tulip gave them a confused look, and the sky rumbled. Kendou looked up.

"Don't you dare," she hissed at the sky. The clouds shifted.

'FUCK YOU' they said. It began to rain.

"This is my life now," Midoriya despaired. "I traded Kacchan and a nice quiet state of nonexistence for _this_. No offense," he added, to Kendou.

"You'd prefer to hang out with one of the biggest assholes in Heroics Department than me?" Kendou asked. "Sorry, Midoriya, but I'm a little offended. Maybe a lot."

"I think this place is absolutely fascinating!" LeVance chirped.

"I think I'm about two seconds away from using your neck as a stress ball," Kendou snarled. "So shut the hell up." LeVance hid a small smile.

"Very well," he said, sitting down on a nearby rock. "Don't you mind me one bit."

"Doing my best," Kendou replied. Midoriya sighed.

"Let's just find shelter," he pleaded. "We'll get hypothermia out here." Kendou nodded in agreement.

"Good plan," she said. "We need to strategize. If Bakugou's here, some of the others might be too. We need to find everyone and get the hell out of here. Follow me; there's a ledge I saw earlier that should provide some cover from all this." She broke into a jog, and LeVance and Midoriya jogged after her (well, Midoriya jogged – LeVance just trotted along, humming).

"I wonder what Kacchan's doing," Midoriya thought aloud. He tried not to think about it too much. Bakugou was strong. There was no reason to worry; he'd be fine.

But there was, and he wasn't.

* * *

"The sun will be up soon," Dabi said suddenly. Bakugou started and turned to look at him. The two had been sitting very still, carefully watching the entrance of the cave in anticipation of any unwelcome life forms, and neither had really spoken. "We'll hit the road then."

"I don't like this," Bakugou grumbled. Dabi rolled his eyes.

"I don't care," he replied. "I'm going to cut your legs free. Try anything funny, and… well, I don't think you need a reminder." Bakugou did not need a reminder; the cream Dabi had given him had worked surprisingly well, but Bakugou was still very much aware of the injury on his cheek. The pain had gone down to a dull throb, which he could deal with, but it still hurt enough to keep him acutely aware of the fact that he was trapped in a cave with a morally deficient pyromaniac.

"Whatever," he said, looking away. Dabi snorted in amusement, and crouched down, a small flame springing to life on his finger. Bakugou's eyes widened. "Wait–" he began, but Dabi didn't let him finish.

"I don't have a knife, genius," the villain snapped. "Either I burn the ropes off or I burn your legs off; your pick. Or you could hop, I guess." Bakugou shut his mouth and glowered down at the ropes. The flames ate quickly through the rope, somehow avoiding his pants and flesh, and a small part of Bakugou was impressed by the amount of control Dabi had over his Quirk (the rest of him immediately became furious for daring to admire a _villain_ , and he gave himself a mental kick in the shins). "Don't say I never did anything for you," Dabi added.

"You never did anything for me," Bakugou said instinctively. He regretted it a second later, remembering the pain in his cheek, but Dabi just snickered.

"Fair enough," he admitted. "No running off, got it?" Bakugou gave him an annoyed look.

"Oh, I'm running off right this instant," he sneered. "I just can't _wait_ to get _eaten alive_." Dabi grinned at him.

"Nice to see some enthusiasm there, kid," he said, deciding to let the rudeness slide for the moment. "'Cause it looks like the sun's just about up." Bakugou glanced back at the mouth of the cave. A faint glimmer of sunlight could be seen, just beginning to sparkle upon the ocean. Bakugou swallowed.

"Oh," he mumbled, trying and miserably failing to control the shakiness of his voice. He couldn't afford to be seen any weaker. Dabi, however, saw right through him and laughed.

"Let's roll," Dabi said, clapping him on the shoulder and tugging him to his feet.

"Yeah," Bakugou muttered. The sounds of the creatures and their meal still echoed in his ears. "Let's."

 **AN: Woo, chapter six is done! Yay! For anyone who read Desiderium and is wondering whether or not it will be continued, I still haven't decided. There are some things I need to think about, story-wise, but there's a pretty high chance that I'll at least give it a go. Anyhow, thanks for reading and let me know what you thought! Kitty out.**


	7. Sweet Dreams Are Made of Something Else

**AN: Time to get to work on chapter seven! Y'know, it's strange… the two fics I'm most invested in right now are both BNHA fics, but they're so freaking** ** _different_** **from one another… well, I'm mean to Bakugou in both, so there's that. XD**

 **Also… I don't wanna ask too much, but would you guys mind reviewing a little more, please? I really want to know what you liked and disliked, but it also gives me motivation to keep writing in general. To those of you who already review, I'm extremely grateful. It really means a lot.**

 **Recap time! Ashido and Tokoyami have finally escaped the room they were in, but Ashido accidentally horrifically mutilated Rodney on the way out, and now they're running through a pastel-y jungle, possible being chased by an angry immortal serial killer. Awase, Kaminari, and Hagakure are stuck in a place where everything is made out of cheese; however, it keeps shifting around them, so they're basically hopelessly lost. Midoriya, Kendou, and LeVance are still in that weird video area with the asshole narrator, but now it's raining because apparently the clouds are also assholes (to be fair, it's not like Kendou said 'please'). Bakugou is still Dabi's prisoner in a land filled with hungry monsters, and now they're about to make a run for it while the sun's still up (which gives them around an hour, assuming Dabi wasn't wrong in his assessment of time and/or lying).**

 **And now… on with the story!  
** **Edit: I made an enormous, very stupid, very result-of-being-in-a-car-for-seven-hours mistake, but Pen_Name_Noyb pointed it out, so it's been fixed. Thanks!**

Chapter Seven: Sweet Dreams Are Made of Something Else Entirely

The marketplace that the four Class 1-B students and prehistoric companion had stumbled upon was filled with, as Rin put it, "some real weird shit". There were all sorts of strange beings walking around, buying and selling even stranger things.

"We're lost," Kamakiri grumbled. Tokage shrugged.

"We've been lost the whole time," she pointed out. "Maybe someone here has seen someone we know!"

"Like who?" Rin asked. "We don't know if anyone else ended up here."

"It's quite likely," Shiozaki spoke up. She was scratching the underside of Lavi's chin, looking quite fascinated at how similar the purring velociraptor was to a cat. "None of us were anywhere near one another, were we?" They all shook their heads. "The biggest thing we have in common is that we're all from Class 1-B. I suggest asking someone for directions."

"How about her?" Rin jerked his chin towards a young woman sitting on a box at the entrance to what appeared to be a back alley of some kind. She was very sad and pale, with stringy waist-length hair, a torn dress, and watery eyes. Still, she didn't seem lost, so Tokage shrugged and began to head over to her.

"Excuse me–" she began, but then a hand covered her mouth and yanked her back. Rin, Shiozaki, and Kamakiri all steeled themselves for a fight, and Lavi let out a warning growl.

"Are you out of your mind?" the boy who'd grabbed Tokage hissed. He looked like a normal human, but his eyes were a little too wide and his ears a little too pointed.

"You're the one who grabbed her!" Kamakiri snapped angrily.

"She was trying to talk to _her_!" the boy exclaimed, jerking his head toward the pale girl, who had turned to look at them. "She's a Denizen. Don't you know anything?"

"We're kinda new around here," Rin explained. "Er, this might sound strange, but we're from a–"

"Different dimension?" the kid sniffed. "Yeah, well, welcome to the club. Just about everyone here got yanked out of their own dimensions and ended up here. I bet you're trying to go home, so I'll just tell you now to give up. It's not gonna happen."

"What exactly _is_ a Denizen?" Shiozaki asked, glancing at the pale girl. "And why is it bad to talk to one?"

"Denizens are what we call people like _her_ ," a female voice said. The speaker hopped forward, and the 1-B students started at the sound of a human voice coming from a kangaroo. "They've been here longer than anyone else. Most people think they actually _are_ from this place."

"Seems like a good person to ask for directions, then," Kamakiri pointed out. The kangaroo shook her head.

"There's not a great way to explain this, so I'll just put it like this: without looking at her, tell me what color her hair is." The kangaroo looked directly at Tokage.

"Sure," the hero-in-training shrugged. "Easy enough. It's… pale."

"That's not a color," the pointy-eared boy said. Tokage turned to look at the pale-haired girl. Try as she might, she couldn't find a color to describe the Denizen's hair.

"If you start thinking about them in detail, you'll notice things about them that don't quite add up," the kangaroo explained. "Talk to them too much, and you'll start forgetting things. You'll end up like them, except you'll disappear soon."

"We call the people who forget things the Lost," the boy added. He looked sad for a moment. "My granny was one. They don't stick around for long. Not more than a couple days, at most."

"That's awful," Shiozaki murmured, looking forlornly at the Denizen girl. "It must be very lonely for them, though."

"I don't think they feel stuff like that," the boy said bluntly. Rin stepped forward.

"We're looking for people like us," he changed the subject. "Have you heard anything about kids with special powers?"

"Is that a trick question?" the pointy-eared boy asked, raising an eyebrow. "There are people like that _everywhere_."

"Okay," Kamakiri said, trying not to sound afraid. "Um, anyone who's mentioned a school called Yuuei?" the boy shook his head, but the kangaroo seemed thoughtful.

"Y'know, I think there _was_ ," she spoke slowly as she tried to recall the person she was remembering. "He passed through here some time ago; can't remember when. He had green hair and freckles, I believe, and his eyes were a lovely green. Or was it blue?" She nodded. "Yes, he certainly mentioned a place called 'Yuuei'. What was his name again…?" she trailed off, eyes glazing over as she struggled to jog her memory.

"That sounds a bit like Midoriya from Class 1-A," Shiozaki murmured. The kangaroo's claws made a clacking noise as they crashed together in a clap.

"Midoriya!" she exclaimed. "Yes, that was it. Midoriya. Very kind, too." The boy's face lit up.

"I know him!" he piped up. The four students exchanged gleeful glances. "He's staying in a house on the edge of town! There are some others there too!"

"Which way?" Rin demanded. The boy grinned.

"Follow me!" he yelled over his shoulder as he began to run off. Shiozaki, Tokage, Rin, Kamakiri, and Lavi raced after him.

"Be safe!" the kangaroo called. She smiled. "Ah, to be _young_ again…"

* * *

The spy curled their lip as they watched their companions waste time. They needed to get back as soon as possible – every moment they were gone was a minute the school had to figure out their identity. Of course, they wouldn't be the only suspect, but it wouldn't be nearly as hard to narrow down the options once the school realized that the spy had to be one of the people that had vanished. On top of that, their room could be searched at any moment. They were fairly confident in their ability to hide things, but some risks just weren't necessary.

They would need to be ready to flee on a moment's notice once they returned.

* * *

The sun was dark blue and stood out against the pale gray horizon. It rose into the air with a grumble and prepared to make it's way across the sky, hoping to get back to bed as quickly as possible. It did not move in a straight line, because it had no time for that sort of thing, and because that wasn't the way its bed was anyway. It would make a circle around the sky, with as small a radius as it could get away with, and then it would go back home and let the moon take over from there.

There was no moon in this particular area, something the sun was fully aware of, but it did not consider that to be its business or its problem. Getting a moon was someone else's job, and the sun couldn't care less if light only shone for one hour a day. It saw two people – humans, probably, but who could be sure – begin to make their way out of a cave and stopped to watch. The two did not seem to be friends. In fact, one appeared to be the other's prisoner.

 _Drama_ , the sun thought, both disgusted and intrigued. It was officially against drama, especially the human variety, but it hadn't seen very few interesting things since getting ripped out of its home sky – where it had only been expected to show up for half an hour before some other sun's shift would begin – and ending up in this place, and watching rather phallic monsters eat people alive had gotten boring fairly quickly. It thought that perhaps the humans might provide some entertainment, and made the decision that, should they provide adequate amusement, it would hang around a little longer than it normally would have and give them some extra light. Or perhaps it would turn off without warning at see how they dealt with the creatures they would almost immediately be surrounded by.

The sun sank as low as it dared to watch, and wondered how long it would take them to figure out the joke.

* * *

The instant Dabi saw the sun fully rise, he untied his Bakugou's (keeping the rope, of course, because he wasn't a moron) and pushed him out of the cave. Bakugou stumbled and fell, but managed to push himself back to his feet. Even with his hands bound, he still managed to flip Dabi off.

"I said it was time to go," Dabi pointed out.

"Die," was all Bakugou said in response. Dabi poked him in the shoulder with a finger that was slightly warmer than it needed to be – not quite a warning, but not exactly _not_ a warning. The two began to walk, quickly, but without ever breaking into anything faster than a walk. Every now and again, Bakugou turned his head to make sure they weren't being followed, and the village had quickly faded into the distance. And then Dabi stopped and Bakugou walked right into him, barely managing to stop himself from falling again. "What the fuck?" he yelled, and then went quite when he saw what Dabi was looking at.

They had been walking in a straight line, away from the village, but now it was coming back into view in front of them. The sun had begun to sink lower into the sky, and it was making a strange sound that Bakugou thought might have been laughter. One hour, he realized, was up. Dabi seemed to have become very aware of this as well, and he glanced over his shoulder to see if he could make out the village that should have been behind them, but he was met only with rock. The cave they had been in was nowhere in sight. Dabi swore.

The sun's light faded, and the shadows began to move.

* * *

The Cyclops was large and angry, but it wasn't smart or fast or agile. This became readily apparent when the three girls fled past a pool of water and the Cyclops saw its own reflection and decided that it was apparently being challenged for its therapy. Toga and Uraraka both looked confused as to what to do, but Asui had no time for the Cyclops's problems and grabbed her companions' hands, dragging them after her as she ran. Eventually, they all ran out of breath and collapsed beneath the shade of a rock jutting out from a cliff that hadn't been there until fairly recently and was quite clearly the wrong shade of grayish brown.

"We're alive," Toga panted. "We're _alive_."

"Good observation," Asui said flatly. She was not pleased that the villain had accompanied them, despite having made the offer to begin with, and she wasn't the type to hide that. Uraraka glanced between the two.

"Any idea what to do know?" she asked. For a moment no one said anything.

"No cell phone service," Toga said, disappointed. She hadn't expected there to be, but there was no reason not to check.

"Damn," Uraraka muttered. "Damn, damn, damn, damn, _damn_." Asui stood up, ignoring her protesting muscles.

"I'm gonna climb up," she said. "Maybe I'll see something useful, ribbit." She gave Toga a warning look. "If you try anything–"

"I won't, I won't," Toga waved her off, whining a little. "Yeesh. I promised, didn't I?" Uraraka rolled her eyes.

"You aren't trustworthy, though," she pointed out. "Don't worry, Tsu-hon, I'll be on guard." Asui nodded, and then hopped out, leaping up onto the rock that was currently sheltering them from the sun. Or, at least, would have been had the sun actually been there. It wasn't that there was no sunlight – the area they were in at the moment looked like a relatively normal sunny day on a mountainside, except that the sun wasn't in the sky. The light shining down around them wasn't actually _coming_ from anything. It was simply there, hoping they wouldn't notice that it probably shouldn't be.

Asui jumped up the rocks with ease, looking around for– well, anything, really. It wasn't like there was a lot to see. Most of the surrounding area was cliff and rock, mostly the right colors, but with splashes of _wrongness_ here and there. The Cyclops was nowhere in sight, which Asui thought was probably a good thing. In the distance, to her left, she saw dark orange. It was the only thing she could see that wasn't _rock_ , and it was the opposite direction where they'd last seen the Cyclops, so that was where they should probably go.

She hopped back down to see that Toga had indeed refrained from doing anything aside from sitting up and leaning against a chunk of chalky pink rock. Both she and Uraraka looked exhausted, and Asui probably did as well. The other two looked at her, as though waiting for her directions, as though she'd become their leader – and, she realized, she kind of _had_.

"Let's get some rest," Asui decided. "Then we head out. I saw something that wasn't a rock, so maybe we'll find something there, ribbit."

"Sounds good to me," Uraraka nodded. Toga shrugged, offering no objection.

"Knife," Asui said, sticking out her hand. Toga frowned, glanced between the two of them, and grudgingly handed one knife to each of them. Asui did not press the point any further – a truce meant compromises, and she wasn't about to force Toga to give up what was, as far as they knew, her only means of defense. But that didn't mean she was going to leave herself and Uraraka undefended, especially since she was completely sure that Toga had more than two knives on her.

Uraraka put her knife down next to her, on the side of her body furthest from Toga. Asui pretended to put her own in one pocket, and then sneakily slipped it into the other – at least this way she'd have a good fighting chance if Toga tried to get them back.

"Anyone got any pillows?" she asked. The other two shook their heads, and the three exhausted girls went to sleep on the rocks.

* * *

Walking around was, Sero felt, basically pointless, since they didn't know where they were currently or where they were going or if they were going anywhere at all, but they'd all agreed that staying put was unlikely to accomplish anything, and as long as they stuck together they'd probably be fine. Of course, the instant Kirishima had said that, the fire had abruptly died out and would not start again no matter what Hatsume did. So walking and looking for an idea of what to do was really the only thing they could do.

And then it had started to snow. None of them were in any way dressed for cold weather, since it had been summer back home, and all three were acutely aware that finding shelter and warmth was a key point of survival, and the sooner the better. As they walked, the snow fell harder and faster, and the three huddled together. It slowed down the walk, but it kept them warm and alive.

By the time the snowstorm had turned into an all-out blizzard, none of the three could feel their faces or hands or feet. Hatsume was a strong girl, but she wasn't a hero and she hadn't had the training the other two had had, and when she could no longer keep moving, Kirishima carried her. He was stronger than Sero, but Hatsume was heavy and exhaustion weighed on him as well. One misstep sent him – and Hatsume, by default – to the ground, and Sero could neither pick them up nor carry on without them. Freezing to death was not the way he wanted to go, and he felt like Todoroki would probably be annoyed if he died like this, and that was funny, somehow.

As Sero gave up trying to hold onto consciousness, he heard a voice in the distance, rather guiltily, say, "oops".

 **AN: THIS TOOK WAY TOO LONG TO FINISH I'M SO SORRY. Well, anyway, it's done now, though I don't know when I'll be able to post it (I've been on the road for a little under two hours, and I've got somewhere between five and seven hours left to go, but hopefully I'll find a spot of Internet to post this so y'all don't have to wait any longer than necessary), and maybe by the time I get home someone will have left a review, which is always nice. Well, anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you next time! Kitty out.**


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